According to the document, the Nasdaq-listed company has launched its blockchain initiatives in full swing since 2016, and has deployed blockchain solutions in five key areas, including supply chain, finance, insurance fraud prevention, big data security, and public service.

Pei Jian, Vice President of JD who heads the recently-established data platform and product research and development department, said that JD truly needs blockchain solutions, because this technology promises to solve many thorny issues regarding movable property assessment, clearing and settlement of transactions, second-hand trading, supply chain traceability, among others.

“The marginal cost of using blockchain to reshape supply chain is very low, thus brand owners and suppliers take an active part in the blockchain initiative with its revenue far exceeding the expenditure. ”said Zhang Zuoyi, the product manager for JD’s blockchain traceability project.

JD, Alibaba’s chief rival back home, plans to launch its own Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform in the near future as the white paper states, which will be used to let its partners like government agencies, logistics companies, brand owners and financial institutions to launch blockchain applications.

The document release comes after the e-commerce company made two big moves in the space this year. JD announced a project to use the blockchain technology to track beef imports from Australia earlier this month. In late February, the firm also launched a new accelerator program to help blockchain start-ups “test real-world applications of their technologies at scale”.

As China’s tech titans Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent — collectively known as BAT—bet big on blockchain, JD does not want to be left behind.The firm aspires to build blockchain infrastructure for enterprise-level applications, and provide companies with blockchain solutions that can address issues such as system performance, functional integrity, system scalability, and usability. JD expects to open up its BaaS platform to the outside world.